Word: unita
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Angola remains mired in a seemingly endless war between the Marxist-Leninist government, led since 1979 by Jose Eduardo dos Santos, and the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (unita), headed by Jonas Savimbi and supported by South Africa and the U.S. After a decade the fighting drags on, with no prospect of victory on either side. TIME's Nairobi bureau chief, James Wilde, recently spent 15 days crisscrossing Angola. His journey took him from the U.S.-operated oil installations in the northern enclave of Cabinda to the capital, Luanda, where he was admitted to the presidential...
Savimbi's 40,000 UNITA fighters, backed by an estimated 20,000 South African troops stationed across the border in the South African-controlled territory of South West Africa, or Namibia, have extended their operations to within 40 miles of Luanda. In addition to their military successes, the rebels scored a diplomatic triumph earlier this year when President Reagan welcomed Savimbi to Washington and promised him $15 million for new equipment...
...UNITA's efforts to topple the Luanda government have laid waste the countryside. Since the war began, guerrilla attacks and government mismanagement have combined to drive food production down by 80%; even in the fertile savanna plateau running across the heart of the country, half the children are suffering from malnutrition. Angola's diamond production, which once ranked fourth in the world, has plummeted by nearly 70%. Only the country's vast oil resources, including those controlled by Chevron Corp.'s subsidiary Gulf, continue to bolster the war effort. However, there are estimates that almost half of last year...
...part, Dos Santos, a Soviet-trained petroleum engineer, has shown an increasing inclination to distance his regime from Moscow. The Luanda government, for example, has accepted $100 million in development aid from the European Community. Still, with UNITA extending its influence, the war- weary Angolan army has gradually come under the control of Soviet military technicians. "Dos Santos must move very carefully in dealing with the Soviets," says one foreign diplomat in Luanda. "He does not yet enjoy enough of a power base to keep the Soviets in line -- or to do without them." At the same time, the President...
Meanwhile, the Marxist government of Angola announced that it had repelled two attacks by South African forces in the southeastern town of Cuito Cuanavale. The Angolan Defense Ministry claimed that its troops had killed 95 South Africans. At the same time, UNITA, the U.S.-backed guerrilla movement that seeks to topple the Angolan regime, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Reagan Administration laid the aggression to South Africa. "We do not condone any South African raid into Angola," said a State Department spokesman. In Pretoria, South African officials denied that any of their troops were involved but did not respond...